Mainstreeter Staff
Things are starting to trend in the right direction for Danielle and Scott Keirstead, co-owners of The Mini Branch, Old Ottawa East’s new home for quality, durable children’s clothing, educational toys and sustainable furniture.
“I’m still catching my breath from our Black Friday sale,” Danielle told The Mainstreeter recently. “We were kind of caught off guard. It was pretty amazing, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.”
The Keirsteads, who have lived in Old Ottawa East for 10 years, opened the doors to their new retail store at 5 Hawthorne Avenue in July of this year after an arduous eight month commercial real estate search and in the midst of major roadway work right outside their front door.
Co-founder and operator Danielle Keirstead welcomes shoppers to her new children’s retail clothing, toy and furniture store – The Mini Branch at 5 Hawthorne Avenue. Photo Supplied.
And while business was a little slow and bumpy during those first few months, with the heavy construction now complete and the street coming back to life, more and more shoppers in the community are discovering The Mini Branch, visiting the little gem of a kids store, and coming to understand the Keirstead’s purposeful and customer-friendly approach to in-store and online business.
“I’ve done a lot of research on what products we should be carrying and why we want to carry them, and we’re really aligning ourselves with companies that have values that match ours and that are really able to stand by their products,” Danielle explains. “All of our suppliers create durable and sustainable products, and they pay their employees fair wages. And we’ve been trying to find products that are made in Canada, because it’s near and dear to our hearts to try to keep our business with the Canadian market.”
The store features quality, durable and sustainably made products and offers customers no time limit returns and guaranteed buy-back on all clothing purchases. Photo Supplied
The Keirstead’s business plan also places a premium on enhancing the shopping experience for their customers, who can visit the store or browse on-line. “Many moms shop on-line these days, because they’re so busy. So we offer them free same day delivery,” says Danielle.
And it doesn’t stop there. The mission of The Mini Branch is to make parenting easier by offering innovative customer service, including a guaranteed buy-back of all of their children’s clothing and no time limits on returns. And according to their website – www.theminibranch.com – they offer all of their customers complimentary coffee!
The Hawthorne Avenue storefront is the former home of Cyco’s bike shop which has moved a few doors east. According to Danielle, her and husband Scott are pretty good at washing walls. “For starters we were looking at 33 years of grease. It was definitely a renovation and we were expecting to do a lot of hard work. But I just fell in love with the character of this space. We’ve been very happy here, and our customers seem to love to shop here.”
The Mini Branch is a well-thought-out and well-conceived addition to the OOE business community – it’s well worth a visit!
